The present invention relates to a device for collecting fragments from the internal wall of the uterus, such as fragments of mucous membranes.
This type of device generally comprises a cylindrical tube, with an outer diameter of about 3 millimeters and an inner diameter of 1.5 to 2.6 millimeters, for a length of about 25 centimeters. The tube is open at a first end, the proximal end, and comprises at its opposite end, the distal end, an aperture, with a diameter of about 2 millimeters, called suction aperture and provided on the cylindrical wall of the tube, i.e. in a plane parallel to the longitudinal axis of the tube. A plunger fixed to the distal end of a rod is adapted to slide inside said tube, while the proximal end of the rod is fast with a gripping member.
This type of device is better known under the trade name PIPELLE DE CORNIER (Registered Trademark).
The generally single use of this known device is as follows: it is introduced through the patient's cervix up to the fundus uteri. Graduations provided on the tube make it possible to localize the arrival of the distal end of the tube, with the aperture, at the beginning of the uterine cavity. The operator, while holding the tube and pulling on the rod, by the gripping member, in the sense of removal with respect to the patient, produces a depression inside the tube and therefore a phenomon of suction at the level of the aperture disposed at the distal end of the tube. The collection of fragments of the uterine wall and of uterine mucous membranes is effected by displacing the tube, preferably by longitudinal reciprocating movement and rotation about the longitudinal axis, while maintaining the distal end of the tube against the wall. Fragments of mucous membrane are therefore torn from the wall and are sucked into the tube through the suction aperture. This latter, in side view, in a plane transverse to the axis of the tube, presents a concavity facing the outside of the tube. In other words, still in side view, the edges of the aperture form a dish whose concavity faces the outside of the tube.
Once the operation of collection is effected, the operator withdraws the device and then pours the contents of the tube resulting from the collections, into a recipient containing a histological fixing liquid.
It will be understood that this type of device must make it possible to collect fragments of uterine walls, mucous membrane, reliably and, of course, without pain. Likewise, the collection must be representative and therefore regular, in terms of depth, in a plane transverse to the wall. The collection must also be easy and rapid in order to shorten as much as possible the operation of collection, in view of the discomfort that it represents for the patient.
The known devices mentioned hereinabove are relatively satisfactory.
However, they are open to improvement and it is one of the objects of the present invention to propose an improved collection device presenting improved conditions of use, particularly in terms of reliability and of optimum conditions of collection, while respecting the required conditions recalled hereinabove.